Read 《The Book of Changes》 and Get to Know the World and Yourself Better

A Brief Introduction to 《The Book of Changes》 by Wang Ronghua

Key Points of Presentation

1.What kind of book is it?

2.Its classic form.

3.Its structure.

4.The thoughts it contains

What Kind of a Book Is It?

•易经，in “pinyin” it reads "Yì Jīng" and in “Wade-Giles” it reads I Ching , it has been translated into English as 《The Book of Changes》.

•It is first of all a CLASSIC. It is one of the 《Four Books and Five Classics》. The classic form contains the 64 hexagrams and their names, explanation of the hexagrams and horizantal lines.

•Secondly, the book contains rich commentaries such as the 《Ten Wings—十翼》 written by Confucius, 《Commentary on the Sequence of the 64 Hexagrams—序卦传》，《Commentary on the Hexagram Texts—彖传》, 《Commentary on the Image—象传》，《Commentary on the Text Tagging—繋卦传》，《Additional Remarks on the Qian and Kun Hexagrams—文言传》，《Commentary on Trigrams—说卦传》 and 《Commentary on the Coupled Hexagrams—杂卦传》.

•Traditionally it was believed that the principles of the I Ching originated with the mythical Fu Xi (伏羲Fú Xī). In this respect he is seen as an early culture hero, one of the earliest legendary rulers of China (traditional dates 2800 BCE-2737 BCE), reputed to have had the 8 trigrams (八卦bā gùa) revealed to him supernaturally.

• By the time of the legendary Yu (禹Yǔ) 2194 BCE–2149 BCE, the trigrams had supposedly been developed into 64 hexagrams (六十四卦lìu shí sì gùa), which were recorded in the scripture Lian Shan (《連山》Lián Shān; also called Lian Shan Yi). Lian Shan, meaning "continuous mountains" in Chinese, begins with the hexagram Bound (艮gèn), which depicts a mountain (¦¦|) mounting on another and is believed to be the origin of the scripture's name.

•After the traditionally recorded Xia Dynasty was overthrown by the Shang Dynasty, the hexagrams are said to have been re-deduced to form Gui Cang (《歸藏》Gūi Cáng; also called Gui Cang Yi), and the hexagram responding (坤kūn) became the first hexagram. Gui Cang may be literally translated into "return and be contained", which refers to earth as the first hexagram itself indicates. At the time of Shang's last king, Zhou Wang, King Wen of Zhou is said to have deduced the hexagram and discovered that the hexagrams beginning with Initiating (乾qián) revealed the rise of Zhou.

•When King Wu of Zhou, son of King Wen, toppled the Shang Dynasty, his brother Zhou Gong Dan is said to have created Yao Ci (爻辭yáo cí, "Explanation of Horizontal Lines") to clarify the significance of each horizontal line in each hexagram. It was not until then that the whole context of I Ching was understood. Its philosophy heavily influenced the literature and government administration of the Zhou Dynasty (1122 BCE - 256 BCE).

Later, during the time of Spring and Autumn (722 BCE - 481 BCE), Confucius is traditionally said to have written the Shi Yi (十翼shí yì, "Ten Wings"), a group of commentaries on the I Ching. By the time of Han Wu Di (漢武帝Hàn Wǔ Dì) of the Western Han Dynasty (circa 200 BCE), Shi Yi was often called Yi Zhuan (易傳yì zhùan, "Commentary on the I Ching"), and together with the I Ching they composed Zhou Yi (周易zhōu yì, "Changes of Zhou"). All later texts about Zhou Yi were explanations only, due to the classic's deep meaning.

The Structure—a System of Symbols

•In 《The Book of Changes》 the unlimited space or the matrix of universe, the null and void of the world is called 太极—tài jí, which brought about the polarities.

•The polarities—两仪—liǎng yí, they are the masculine and the feminine, the masculine or 乾—qián is represented as

1.The upper left is 少阳，shào yáng or younger masculine when the masculine has just been created and the feminine is retreating;

2.The upper right is 太阳，tài yáng or the elder masculine when the masculine has been fully created and the masculine entity has been formed.

3.The lower left is 少阴，shào yīn or the younger feminine when the feminine has just been created and the masculine is retreating;

4.The lower right is 太阴， tài yīn or the elder feminine when the feminine has been fully created and the feminine entity has been formed.

The Trigram

The world is composed of the sky, the live and the earth. The trigram represents these three domains. The upper line signifies the sky, the middle the human beings and the bottom the earth.

The Hexagram

•The sky and the earth are positioned, the mountain and the marsh are formed; the thunder arouses all life; the wind starts blowing; fire is ignited; and the water condenses. They are the eight elementary substances of the world and are created accordingly.

•The polarities give birth to four dualities; and the four dualities created eight trigrams; hence 乾、坤、震、巽、坎、离、艮、兑are formed.

•乾、坤、震、巽、坎、离、艮、兑

•Qián, kūn, zhèn, xùn, kǎn, lí, gèn, dùi

•Masculine, feminine, the shake, the ground, the gorge, radiance, bound, the open

•Each hexagram is a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines (爻yáo), each line is either “Yang” (an unbroken, or solid line), or “Yin” (broken, an open line with a gap in the center). With six such lines stacked from bottom to top there are 26 or 64 possible combinations, and thus 64 hexagrams represented.

•The eight trigrams inter-mate one upon another. The phenomena of each hexagram emerge in accordance with the mutual influences and inter-actions between the two inter-mated trigrams. Each hexagram has its particular subject and its six lines represent six different space time manifestations in the era of this subject. Thus, the 64 hexagrams and their 386 lines cover all the possible incidents of the world.

乾—qián creativeness, perseverance, the sky. Its image is the sky. The sky persists with its function day and night, season after season and year after year with neither slackness nor neglect.

坤–(kūn) Its image is the earth. Its instinct is submissive and receptive. It is purely feminine. It is opposite but symbiotic to masculinity. It is submissive to the sky and accommodates the world. Qián originates the world and kūn nourishes the world, kūn follows qián.

屯，zhūn. It is the first hexagram created by qián and kūn. It is grass sprouting from the ground, yet its upper trigram is water and lower trigram is thunder, which has difficulties to get out of the water and reach the sky.

•蒙，měng. Being in the young and initial stage of a creature, it must be civilized. It is to dispel ignorance and enlighten intelligence. It tends to enlighten people and to be a teacher.

需，xū. It is a subject of eating and drinking, signifying the one above should seek how to free people from hunger and people should yield to one another in order to avoid litigation. The bottom trigram qián is full of masculine and the upper trigram is

讼，sòng. Once food and drink are obtained, conflict definitely occurs. It means litigation due to conflict. It is the reverse hexagram of xū， xū signifies “not to advance” and to wait, while sòng asks people “not to be intimate with” because of litigation.

•师，shī. It is an army, in litigation, people have to confront each other. With water underground, it is just like an army reserved among civilians. The trigram kǎn is peril and stays at the bottom while the top is kūn, a crowd of people. It is a scene of troops led to battle in an orderly manner. It is composed of one masculine line and five feminine lines, symbolizing one commander leading a group of soldiers, a clear leadership.

小畜，xiǎo chù. Intimacy leads to storage. Chù has the meaning of storage, restraint and feeding. Water becomes streams and eventually converges at a dam, which is chù. Xiǎo means small, and xiǎo chǔ means little feeding, restraint and storage.

•履, lǚ. Things (i.e. animals) will act in accordance with propriety after being herded， therefore, Lǚ is granted. It signified the shoe, with which to tread. Its extended meaning is to carry out.

•泰，tài. To carry out in accordance with propriety, it will progress smoothly all the way; it is peace, therefore tài is granted. It signifies “to proceed smoothly, without obstacles, to interact harmoniously and peacefully.”

•否，pǐ. Things can not always proceed smoothly，pǐ is therefore granted. After tài reaches extremity， it will collapse； it is not possible to always move forth as it will be blocked. Pǐ means all things are being blocked. It is a scene of stagnation. Pǐ and tài are mutually reversed and interchangeable hexagrams and they are opposite to each other. Usually pǐ means adversity and tài means prosperity.

•同人，tōng rēn. Things can not be stagnant forever，tōng rēn is therefore granted. It means to put aside differences and seek common ground， to make friends and get along well with others. People in plight need to make friends with others who have the same aspirations, and to join forces in order to make a breakthrough and to topple the pǐ.

大有，dà yǒu. When people with the same aspirations get together, all resources will become available. The feature of this hexagram is that all the big ones (the five masculine lines) belong to the small one (the feminine line). To put it simply, it means large possession or abundant possessions.

谦，qiān. It means to be modest or humble. After abundant possessions have been acquired, excessiveness have to be avoided. It signifies internal restraint and external submissiveness.

豫，yù. It means comfort and pleasure and precautions against calamities. It also means inducement and new stimulus.

随，suí. It means to follow. Zhèn in the bottom is a masculine trigram which signifies movement; duì in the upper signifies tenderness and joy. This is a scene of following.

蛊，gǔ.

•To follow a person according to what pleases him, there ought to be something hidden. It means evil emanating from things decay or a long standing malpractice.

•临，lín. Having dealt with malpractice, people would have grown and become larger. Largeness is able to tolerate and accommodate with things small. It signifies things large, superior and above approach things small, inferior and below.

观，guān.

•Things can be easily seen after they become large. In ancient times, the newly promulgated regulations were hung on top of a palace gate; the place for hanging the regulations was called “guān”. So, it signifies that those above present a model and those below have to look up. It also means to observe and to contemplate.

噬嗑，shì kè. Things can join and match one another when their shape and features are clear. The image of the trigram looks like something in a mouth, and it means to “bite through and join.” Its extended meaning is to get rid of the barriers and resume the normal function.

賁, bì. It means to beautify， to give a better image or to grace.

剥，bō. It is like an aged paint that is cracking and peeling off. It means decaying and declining.

复，fù. It means to return or recover. Mutual increase and decrease between the masculine and the feminine is the rule of nature. The feminine can overpower the masculine, but can not exterminate it. When bō reaches the end, the remaining masculine, line 6, returns to the bottom, wherein the masculinity recovers.

无妄, wú wàng.

•It means no pretense. Nothing is pretentious after solidity returns.

•大畜, dà chù. Chù means feeding and storage. It means to act with timing and the accumulated wisdom.

•颐, yí. After things are herded, they must be nourished. It signifies to nourish. It is to nourish righteousness.

大过, dà guò.

•It means great preponderance and great surpassing. It also means subversion, that is to turn things upside down because of large excess.

坎, kǎn. It is the abyss. It is the masculine plunged into the abyss. Kǎn in Chinese means lack of soil. The hexagram is composed of two “kǎn”, that signifies multiple perils.

离, lí. It means clinging and attachment. After getting through the ordeal, brightness is ahead. It is fire and flames blazing upward.